Ancestors, Goddesses, and Heroes: Sculptures from Asia, Africa, and Europe

Print Only Published by Deutscher Kunstverlag (DKV) 2023

Ancestors, Goddesses, and Heroes

Sculptures from Asia, Africa, and Europe

Edited by: Stiftung Humboldt Forum

Overview

About this book

Protecting, healing, or punishing—people of various eras and origins have attributed such powers to the sculptures that are being presented together here for the first time: be it the sculpture of the Mangaaka from what is today the Republic of Congo, the protective goddess Mahamayuri from China, or the Maria on the globe from Southern Germany. Forty-five objects created between the fourth and the nineteenth century from two museums in Berlin provide a vivid testimony to the ever-present need for protection and orientation when dealing with individual or social crises. They represent the existence of an invisible world of gods, spirits, or ancestors, and create a connection between this world and a "different reality." As a result of how they are presented in museums, their context of use is, however, often lost—a situation that is reflected on by the authors of this book.

Objects that protect people and offer orientation in crisis situations — a universal topic in the history of humankind

Author / Editor information

With essays by Bernadette Bröskamp, Julien Chapuis, Cäcilia Fluck, Hans-Ulrich Kessler, Nathalie Küchen, Barbara Lenz, Tanja-Bianca Schmidt, Andrew Sears et al.

Topics

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Deutscher Kunstverlag (DKV)
Audience: People interested in art and culture, ethnologists, historians
Pages
- Main content: 96
Illustrations
- Coloured Illustrations: 100
Keywords: Sculpture; protective objects; religion; Humboldt Forum; Berliner Schloss; Berlin museums; superstition; crisis management; protection; gods; spirits; ancestors; afterlife; power figure; Mangaaka; protective goddess; Mahamayuri; Maria Immaculata; Maria standing on the globe; patron; patroness

Paperback

Published: January 30, 2023
ISBN: 9783422990906